A recent interview with Edge Magazine has apparently spilled some interesting beans: Sony has moved 9 million PS4 SKUs. Of course, Sony has yet to confirm this figure; and the sold-through estimates are roughly still at 8.2 million according to VG Chartz, so it’s likely that this may relate to the shipped-to-retailers figure.

According to the IBT article, Edge asked Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President Phil Harrison about the “widening gap” between the PS4 and Xbox One, noting that the PS4 was at 9 million and the Xbox One was only at 5 million (shipped). Harrison responded saying…

“We’ve definitely learned a lot over the last year and we have continued to hold ourselves to a very high standard,”… “Some analysts will suggest that we are less than 5% into this generation, so there is plenty of market opportunity ahead of us.”

It’s true that the market growth potential is definitely there, but at the same time it’s something that’s also being moved into a two-horse race at the moment between Nintendo’s Wii U and the PlayStation 4.

Nintendo made a pretty big comeback with Mario Kart 8 at the end of May and it’s given them – along with an outstanding performance at E3 – a major boost in the hardware sales of the Wii U. It wasn’t enough to catch up to the PS4 but it was enough to maintain second place.

The Xbox One, on the other hand, is no where near either competitor and it’s making miniscule gains on the Wii U on a month-to-month basis. Catching Sony’s PS4 seems to be way out of Microsoft’s league as they continue to battle against the poor perception they picked up from last year under the regime of Don Mattrick and friends.

Harrison is optimistic about the Xbox One’s future, however; he’s putting a lot of faith in the Xbox brand’s potentiality when it launches in second-tier countries this September, with the VP saying…

“Hats off to Sony, they’ve had a great start; they have been in more countries and – to date, at least – at a lower price. We have announced a new Xbox One at a lower price; we go to 29 new countries starting in September.”

If what Edge states is true – that Sony may have shipped 9 million SKUs to date – then Microsoft is going to have a hard, bumpy, uphill struggle ahead of them.

We’ll see how well the $399, eunuch-edition of the Xbox One does when the June NPD numbers become available in two week’s time. For now, I imagine Microsoft is really feeling lonely being left in the gap that Sony left behind as they continue to speed away in first place.